XBMC Script for SageTV Released 3/1/2006

[kricker]

The script has been working really good for me once I removed the recording paths from the config. The only downside to that is without those settings it streams the files from the webserver and doesn't show the time elapsed or left in the file when playing. I hope to look into this more later.

[Skybolt]

Is there a trick to get this script to connect?

I have XBMC working fine with the same server as sage. Also I have been using the web server fine as well.

the settings entry is as follows:

<Connection Ipaddress="192.168.1.100" Password="frey" Port="8080" UserId="sage"/>

realms.properties file are as listed:

SageTV Web Interface=/sage,sage:frey

the SageTv.pl file goes to running then nothing - no lockup just nothing. I have tried all files on Coolwaves site.

Coolwave referances web serve 2.6 but the latest is only 2.22 and it looks like I am running 2.18. Can anyone clairify this?

Thanks,
Skybolt

[jhh]

Originally Posted by Skybolt

Coolwave referances web serve 2.6 but the latest is only 2.22 and it looks like I am running 2.18. Can anyone clairify this?

I've tested 2.20 and 2.21 and both work - you need to remove the recording path from the settings.xml so the webserver streams the recording. Btw. it's not like 2.6 is 2.60 it's rather old.

The script relies heavily on what the html output from the server looks like. So updates in the script that affect the webpage appearance will most likely break the script. You definately need to change your webserver version or it will not work.

[Skybolt]

Originally Posted by jhh

I've tested 2.20 and 2.21 and both work - ... You definately need to change your webserver version or it will not work.

Thanks for the quick reply,

I just changed to 2.20 and I get the same thing - starts to run and then nothing. I removed the recordign path in the xml file:

<!-- <System RecordingPath="" XBMCPath=""/> -->

the only thing that I did differant withthe XBMC is I installed it in th e"E:\Dashboard" dir. and did not create a seperate XBMC dir. Not sure if that matters though.

thanks,
Skybolt

[jhh]

Maybe you can post the scripts debug log? Also - has it ever worked before?

It would not be bad to have a super generic install - have xbmc in \apps\xbmc and Sagetv script in scripts\sagetv. Although it should not be too fussy about where it is - it is reading an environment variable to find out. Only requirement is to be in \scripts\sagetv.

Is your xbmc fairly recent? Again should not really be an issue but you never know.

[Skybolt]

I am running T3CH XBMC latest as of this month also tried the previous from last year.

My install is straight over the existing dashboard dir. not in the apps dir. don't even know where to begin to clean that one up...

I would be happy to post any log, except I do not know where the script log is - sorry new to the xbox moding - not to moding though

I have not had the sage script running at all - ever. Just modded the xbox this weekend, wanted a better MVP. That went real smoth and everything works great reads all sages recordings and all that, just can not run this script.
I went through every post in this thread and all links to others.

thanks,
Skybolt

[kricker]

Have you tried connecting to the webserver from another PC?

When I had connection issues in the past. I started over. I removed the enitre SageTV script folder and copied over the original again, after 1st modifying the settings.xml.

I am using jhh's version connected to vs 2.21 of the webserver.

As far as where XBMC is installed on the xbox and where the script is run from it shouldn't matter. I did once in the past run the script from a seperate build of XBMC than the one I was actually running at the time, and it worked fine.

[Skybolt]

Originally Posted by kricker

Have you tried connecting to the webserver from another PC?

Yes - I have version 2.20 running fine. also I just tried another verion of XBMC on another xbox and all of the features of XBMC work fine, only the script.

So now I have one xbox which starts up in XBMC mode and one that is ran as an app. All network functions work fine and both xbox's access the shared folders on my server fine.

It seems that I do not have the correct versions of the sage script. I have downloaded and applied all patches from the previous page with no luck.

Would it be possable for you/someone to zip/rar your script dir and post?

Thanks,
Skybolt

[jhh]

Originally Posted by Skybolt

Would it be possable for you/someone to zip/rar your script dir and post?

Sure - I've changed the settings file to match what you had in an earlier post so it should work straightaway.

[Skybolt]

Thanks - jhh.

I will give this a try when I get home tonight. Thanks!

Happy New Year.

-Skybolt

[Skybolt]

Well - I just don't get it. No luck with your working scripts on web ver: 2.20 or 2.22. The network is fine as all of my network shares work fine. Thanks for posting your scripts. Is there any way of debugging them?

Thanks,
Skybolt

[jhh]

Originally Posted by Skybolt

Is there any way of debugging them?

On the xbox controller press the black button (above the 'B') that should give the python (error) messages. Also you could look at your xbmc.log (should be in the root of your xbmc install)

It's a bit strange that it doesn't do anything at all - normally you would get an unable to connect or so.

If you are really into debugging it - when I started learning the script I nearly wrote every variable to a file and I learned a lot from that.

Another thing you could try is the xbmc emulator which is normally included in your xbmc download and run xbmc and the script on your PC - the emulator does everything apart from playing video but is ideal for script development.

You are in US so you should be ok but your webserver needs to display date/time like this:

Page generated at: Jan 1, 2008 9:31:03 PM [Refresh]
Sage Webserver version 2.21

This should be at the end of the initial page.

Good luck

[Skybolt]

jhh - Thanks for your feedback and advice.

the log only list's
20:29:23 M:796352512 ERROR: Scriptresult: Error

and the black button output seems to fail on all of the self.getxxxxx(self) calls - seems to imply bad connection to server or web server? I can connect to the shared folders and watch video through the XBMC interface though?

Any thoughts - if not, thanks for your help - I like the win32 app much easier for debug.

-Skybolt

[jhh]

Skybolt,

To take your mind off things you might try to install the MyTV program guide script for XBMC. It also uses the webserver - there is a thread on EPG data from Nielms webserver for MyTV.

Also if you create a login for me in the webserver and PM the details I can try and logon from here and check if my setup works on your webserver - at least if your webserver is exposed to the internet.

I have a very similar black button output - loads of errors but it seems to work.

Jan

[maxpower]

Is there now or will there ever be a way to stream HD content to the Xbox. I know it would have to be transcoded. In the works, or no?

[jhh]

Originally Posted by maxpower

Is there now or will there ever be a way to stream HD content to the Xbox. I know it would have to be transcoded. In the works, or no?

I don't think that is difficult - currently the script is not in peak form everything is streamed whereas before you had the option of reading the file directly from the shared drive.

When you stream a file the script writes a tiny file streamplaylist.m3u and that tells the webserver what to do. Currently it is like this:

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:1799,"Spring" at 6:15 PM on 2 Ketnet
http://192.168.2.4:8080/sagepublic/MediaFile?MediaFileId=4067696&Segment=0

If you would want to recode the video then the script would need to look like:

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:1799,"Spring" at 6:15 PM on 2 Ketnet
http://192.168.2.4:8080/sagepublic/MediaFileTranscode?MediaFileId=4067696&Segment=0&mode=vlc&vc=mp4v&vb=384&ac=mp3&ab=96&scale=0.5&mux=ts&deint=1

You can easily find the settings from the webserver - try to play a transcoded file and save it rather than opening it. Then you would need to check the xbmc wiki to see what the maximum is that it can handle.

Then it becomes a bit difficult - how smart should it be? You could read the program info and decide whether it is HD or not and based on that decide what to write in the file. Or you can add a button under the watch button which says watch transcoded if you don't have that info available.

Jan

[swift_gti]

Wow this looks cool!

Can this play live tv through the xbox too?

I want to extend my main tv channels from my mediacenter to xboxes around the house running XBMC. Will this script do the job?

Cheers!

[jhh]

Originally Posted by swift_gti

Can this play live tv through the xbox too?

No, it can't - channel surfing is not an option with this script. At best you can schedule a recording and start watching immediately after. If you then don't step forward during commercials too much you will not catch up with the recording and it will be fine. If you do you will see a short pause now and then. If you then pause a couple of seconds to allow the recording to get ahead of you then the pausing/skipping will disappear.

However scheduling a recording with this script is a bit cumbersome but then again who watches live-tv ?

The script was great as long as there were no extenders - now it looks a bit different maybe?

Jan

[kricker]

The extenders look great, but still not quite as powerful as XBMC. I'm not ready to trade in my xbox just yet. And, with development of XBMC on linux, Mac, and even on Windows, this script still has some life in it. I hope to get back to looking into some things with it. Especially the ability to directly play a file and not have to stream it from the server.

[jhh]

Kricker,

I would compare XBMC on Linux more with SageTVClient as the hardware platform would or could be totally different from XBOX in terms of performance (but then also power consumption, price, etc.). So XBMC on XBOX or XBMC on Linux are for me 2 different things.

I think I must have been confused on the ability of extenders to do DVD playback. In that case you are right and the XBMC cannot be beaten in terms of price/features.

BTW this script is not dead yet - for Maxpower I added a button to watch transcoded HD on the XBMC. I've sent him the script to test.
For the time being I'm happy with streaming also because I thought there were some challenges on Vista and XBMC to access SAMBA shares although in the mean time I did not follow up on the status of that one.